Tablet market now almost the same size as the PC market

IDC is showing some interesting stats on the number of tablets shipped in Q1 – in particular, for every 3 PCs shipped there were 2 tablets shipped.

Since PCs seem to be on a downward trajectory, and the tablet market grew 142% y/o/y, it won’t be long until tablets are just bigger than PCs. Probably this year. Reminds me of my “tablet time” post from last year…

Microsoft seems to be failing in their attempt to get into the tablet market. As this article on extremetech points out, ”Just so you have some idea of how poorly Microsoft’s combination of big-and-expensive tablets are doing, get this: After shipping some 900,000 Surface RT units in Q4 2012, IDC estimates that just 200,000 Windows RT tablets in total — including OEMs! — were sold in Q1 2013. Despite a huge amount of publicity, IDC estimates that the Surface Pro sold around 700,000 units in its first quarter. For comparison, the first iPad sold more than three million units in its first quarter — and the tablet market was a lot smaller back then.”

If I was MSFT, I’d buy share at this point. The whole HP webOS exit from last year, when HP sold tablets for super cheap, clearly showed that the market wants cheap tablets. If Microsoft wants share they should drop the price, lose money and get share. I don’t see any other way.